Eating for Heart Health at Every Age

With February being Cardiac Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to share some information about how to prevent heart disease! On average, every 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease in the United States. With this being said, it is important to take part in activities that will help protect you from heart disease at every age.  It is crucial to create healthy habits, like eating a well-balanced diet and participating in frequent physical activity, throughout your life. The American Heart Association has provided some general guidelines to help prevent heart disease:

Limit saturated fats. Foods high in saturated fats include foods that come from animals like beef, cheese, and butter. When eating this type of food, skinless poultry, lean-beef, and low-fat options are your best bet. The American Heart Association suggests eating no more than 120g of saturated fat per day, based on the average 2,000 calorie diet. They also suggest eating some meals without meat in hopes to lower this type of fat in your diet. Lastly, the organization warns about some plant-based oils that have higher saturated fat levels, such as coconut, palm, and palm kernel oil. 

Eat your fruits and veggies! Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables helps with getting a variety of important vitamins and minerals into your diet. Fruits like strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries contain high amounts of antioxidants.  These have an anti-inflammatory effect and help to protect our cells from damage and stress. Fruits and vegetables are also a good source of fiber, which helps with lowering blood cholesterol levels. 

Incorporate omega-3 fatty acids into your diet. Omega-3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect that has shown to decrease the risk for arrhythmias, plaque buildup in arteries and veins, and lowering triglyceride levels. Oils like olive, canola, and flaxseed oil contain omega-3 fatty acids, as well as nuts like walnuts and pecans. However, these sources contain much more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3’s. Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and albacore tuna are the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids. The American Heart Association suggests eating these fattier fish options 2-3 times each week. 

Besides these dietary guidelines, the American Heart Association suggests participating in frequent physical activity. They suggest at least 2 1/2 hours of walking or 1 hour and 15 minutes of jogging or running every week for adults. The association also suggests that adults participate in strength training activities at least 2 days a week as well. The recommendation for kids is 60 minutes of physical activity each day.

For these tips and more go to: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/How-to-Help-Prevent-Heart-Disease---At-Any-Age_UCM_442925_Article.jsp#.WoTFMIPwbIU and/or

https://healthyforgood.heart.org/Eat-smart/Articles/Fish-and-Omega-3-Fatty-Acids